星火英语四级美文听力

学习啦【英语美文欣赏】 编辑：韦彦 发布时间：2016-09-18

星火英语四级听力美文摘抄

The Shadowland of Dreams

Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there's a big difference between "being a writer" and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at the typewriter. "You've got to want to write," I say to them, "not want to be a writer." The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor—paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune, there are thousands more whose longing is never requited. Even those who succeed often know long periods of neglect and poverty. I did. When I left a 20—year career in the Coast Guard to become a freelance writer, I had no prospects at all.

What I did have was a friend with whom I'd grown up in Henning, Tennessee. George found me my home —a cleaned—out storage room in the Greenwich Village apartment building where he worked as superintendent. It didn't even matter that it was cold and had no bathroom. Immediately I bought a used manual typewriter and felt like a genuine writer. After a year or so, however, I still hadn't received a break and began to doubt myself. It was so hard to sell a story that I barely made enough to eat. But I knew I wanted to write. I had dreamed about it for years. I wasn't going to be one of those people who die wondering, "What if?" I would keep putting my dream to the test — even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the Shadowland of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there.

星火英语四级听力美文鉴赏

The Origin of the Refrigerators

By the mid—nineteenth century, the term icebox had entered the American language, but icewas still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice tradegrew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by someforward—looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before1880 half of the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one—third of that sold inBoston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because anew household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modern refrigerator, had beeninvented. Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the earlynineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science ofrefrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one thatprevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice thatperformed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping up theice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenthcentury did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for anefficient icebox. But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, hadbeen on the right track. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter tomarket, his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, was worth one—pound a brick. One advantageof his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market atnight in order to keep their produce cool.

星火英语四级听力美文赏析

Companionship of Books

A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the company he keeps; forthere is a companionship of books as well as of men; and one should always live in the bestcompany, whether it be of books or of men. A good book may be among the best of friends. Itis the same today that it always was, and it will never change. It is the most patient andcheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress.Italways receives us with the same kindness, amusing and instructing us in youth, andcomforting and consoling us in age. Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by farthe most lasting products of human effort. Temples and statues decay, but bookssurvive.Time is of no account with great thoughts,which are as fresh today as when they firstpassed through their author’s minds, ages ago. What was them said and thought still speaksto us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The only effect of time has been to sift out thebad products; for nothing in literature can long survive but what is really good. Booksintroduce us into the best society; they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds thathave ever lived. We hear what they said and did; we see them as if they were really alive; wesympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours,and we feel as if we were in measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe. Thebook is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens. Hence we ever remain under theinfluence of the great men of old. The greatest intellects of the world are as much alive now asthey were ages ago.

星火英语四级听力美文欣赏

Stress

As the pace of life continues to increase in the modern society, we are fast losing the art of relaxation.Once you are in the habit of rushing through life, being on the go from morning till night, it is very hard to slow down.But relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body.Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it.In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be.A certain amount of stress is vital to provide one with motivation and give purpose to life.It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health.The amount of stress a person can withstand depends very much on the individual.Some people are not afraid of stress at all, and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities.Others lose heart at the first signs of unusual difficulties.When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically.In fact we make a choice between" flight" or" fight".In more primitive days the choices made the difference between life or death.The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but however little the stress, it involves the same response.It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered.Such serious conditions as high blood pressure and heart disease have established links with stress.Since we can not remove stress from our lives( it would be unwise to do so even if we could),we need to find ways to deal with it in order that we can stay healthy in mind and body.